Nintendo News Bits

In memory of Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, who passed away on Saturday, July 11, 2015.

Nintendo of America briefly stated on its Twitter feed: “In remembrance of Mr. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo will not be posting on our social media channels today.”

From an AP announcement: “Satoru Iwata, who led Japanese video game company Nintendo Co. through years of growth with its Pokemon and Super Mario franchises, died on Saturday after a lengthy illness, drawing a flood of emotional tributes from game fans and industry rivals. He was 55.”

From a brief bio on Nintendo’s executive bio of Iwata:
“In 2002, Satoru Iwata was named president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. He joined Nintendo in 2000 as the head of the Corporate Planning Division, where he was responsible for Nintendo’s global corporate planning.

Iwata was born in 1959 in the Hokkaido Prefecture of Japan. He studied at and graduated from the Tokyo Institute of Technology University, where he majored in computer science. Shortly after graduating, Iwata joined HAL Laboratory, Inc. and in 1983 began coordinating the software production and development of Nintendo titles, such as the Kirby series. By 1993, he had become president of that company.”

Always in our hearts, and forever in our games. Thanks to Iwata who contributed so much to the gaming industry.

I’ve always enjoyed retro games and absolutely love it when retro games are remade or repackaged for current-gen consoles. Obviously a complete remake is better than a repackage, but there is nothing wrong with putting a new coat of paint on an absolute classic game!

Reminisce the fun days of 8-bit gaming, soon on your current gen-console. Capcom has announced the Mega Man Legacy Collection is coming this summer to the PS4, Xbox One and PC (and in winter for the Nintendo 3DS). The collection packs faithful reproductions of the original six Mega Man games in one, some additional challenges and Mega Man history.

“In addition to the six Mega Man games, Mega Man Legacy Collection features new ways to experience the classic games with the Museum Mode and new Challenge Mode. Challenge Mode remixes gameplay segments from all six games, with plenty of scaling difficulty objectives for experienced players to conquer yet serving as a good starting point for new players, too,” said Capcom, “Museum Mode contains a comprehensive collection of history, high-res art and original concept pieces – a mega treat for any fan of Mega Man and video game history.”

Can’t go wrong with the side-scrolling classic Mega Man. What retro games would you like to see revived in their classic presentation for today’s systems? There has been loads of lists and polls of most wanted/most likely classic gaming remakes (here is an example). Honestly, any one of those games on this list would be great for a remake, but the arcade classics never get old.

Tried and true arcade games such as Space Invaders, PAC-MAN and Asteroids, in pixel-perfect form would be great to see this on today’s latest systems. Whatever your gaming wish, there is no better way to introduce today’s gamers to some fun history of video games than with some hands-on gameplay.

Nintendo has provided some information on how you can be part of the Nintendo World Championships as revealed by Nintendo during it’s recent E3 announcement video (seen here).

To compete in this competition, head out to a participating Best Buy location on May 30th. Entrants will compete in the Championship mode featured in Ultimate NES Remix for the Nintendo 3DS and will attempt to achieve the highest possible score in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dr. Mario. The winners of the qualifying rounds will then travel to E3 and face off against 15 other players for the title of Nintendo World Champion.

These are the locations of the eight participating Best Buy stores:

1717 Harrison St., San Francisco, CA

3675 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance, CA

10760 NW 17th St., Miami, FL

900 E. Golf Road, Schaumburg, IL

12905 Elm Creek Blvd. N, Maple Grove, MN

5001 Northern Blvd., Long Island City, NY

9378 N. Central Expressway, Dallas, TX

2214 S. 48th St., Tacoma, WA

If you’re near one of the Best Buy locations will you enter the qualifying rounds? Sound off below!

With only 30 days until E3, most of the major video game companies have announced a time slot for their press conferences. Expect to hear a plethora of new announcements for whats coming up in the game industry in the next couple of years.

Once inspired by the mouse, Nintendo is now taking Mario and its iconic characters to Universal Parks & Resorts. Today Nintendo and Universal Parks & Resorts announced they have partnered to create “spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds.” No specifics on what kind of Nintendo game worlds you will be warped into, but you can only imagine the possibilities with the colorful, pipe-laden worlds of Super Mario or the fantasy lands and characters of Zelda.

From the announcement:
“The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal’s theme parks and will feature Nintendo’s most famous characters and games. More details will be announced in the future, as the Nintendo and Universal creative teams work to create specific concepts.”

Keep a lookout for more details from Nintendo and keep dreaming, Kirby!